A VET HAS warned that the popular loom bands could pose a danger to dogs as one puppy had to have her tail partly amputated after a band was put on her tail.

The little puppy, called Patches, was brought into Cara Vet by her concerned owners, as she didn’t seem well.

After a busy weekend where the family had guests to stay, and there were lots of children in the house, Patches was “a little bit off-form”, said Kirsten Cole, head nurse at Cara Vets.

She kept going into a corner and sitting. She was still eating and drinking OK, but she wasn’t herself.

[image alt="cara vet 1" src="http://cdn.thejournal.ie/media/2014/09/cara-vet-1.jpg" width="358" height="424" credit-url="https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FCaraVet" credit-source="Cara%20Vet" caption="Patches" class="wp-embed-data-node mceNodeTemp aligncenter" /end]

Her owners brought her to the vet for a check up, where it was found that she had a sore tail.

However, as her tail was so fluffy, it wasn’t until it was shaved that the problem really became clear – a small blue loom band was wrapped around Patches’ tail, probably by a child who didn’t realise that it would create any sort of problem.

Unfortunately, the band had cut off the blood supply to the tail’s tip, and Patches ended up having her tail amputated.

Beloved pet

Thankfully, she has made a full recovery. “She’s flying along,” said Cole. “She recovered really nicely.”

Patches is a beloved pet and her family were so upset by how the unwitting act of putting a loom band on her tail led to amputation that they decided to share their story,

“We just want to warn children that loom bands are for toys, not for dogs,” said Cole, “especially dogs with longer coats that wouldn’t spot a loom band in them.”

Loom bands are made from rubber and can be tied together to make bracelets, necklaces and other objects. They’re hugely popular with children.

Pictured below is the injured tail with the loom band on it:

[image alt="cara vet 2" src="http://cdn.thejournal.ie/media/2014/09/cara-vet-2-630x431.jpg" width="630" height="431" class="alignnone" /end]

Read: Are loom bands dangerous?>